BugFocus
The Ubuntu Kernel has a very large number of reported bugs, far more than can possibly be handled. This document attempts to indicate where and why the Ubuntu Kernel Team focuses its efforts.
Focus Areas
The Ubuntu Kernel Team is focused in two main areas:
- regressions in stable updates
- bugs in development releases
Regressions in Stable Updates
Stable updates for the Ubuntu kernel are produced in by the Ubuntu Kernel Stable Team. They collate incoming stable updates and fixes for bugs found in the stable series. These are then batched up and kernels are pushed into -proposed for testing. Testing both by early adopters and by the dedicated QA resources then validates those kernels. Once they have been validated in QA they will then pass into -updates for general consumption. Bugs introduced by these updates are seen as a significant problem and therefore a focus for the stable team. There are three places/ways bugs can be found:
- verification-failed -- verification of the update as a whole failed testing, or the fix for a specific bug failed to fix the issue,
- regression-proposed -- something that used to work no longer does, spotted while the kernel is still in the -proposed pocket, and
- regression-updates -- something that used to work no longer does, spotted onced the kernel hits the masses
verification-failed and verification-proposed bugs are of highest severity as they prevent release of the kernel and it must be fixed and re-tested before release.
regression-updates bugs are potentially of very high impact as they have made it out to the greatest number of users.
The stable team primarily focuses on the bugs with the tags below in all stable releases:
- verification-failed
- regression-proposed
- regression-updates
bugs in development releases
The next development release is owned and driven by the Ubuntu Kernel Development Team. They are responsible for getting the latest mainline kernels integrated into Ubuntu and for maintaining the quality of it. They are interested in all bugs which appear in the development release. During development apport is enabled aiding their reporting.
The development team primarily focuses on the bugs tagged with the current development release nickname:
- oneiric (currently)